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WOOM
WOOM, channel 13, is a MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated television station located in Mixopolis, Planet Mixel. The station is owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of 21st Century Fox, as part of a duopoly with Fox owned-and-operated station WXIM (channel 11). The two stations share studio facilities within the Fox Tower in Uptown Mixopolis; WOOM's transmitter is located on Overlook Mountain. History Early history Channel 13 first signed on the air on September 17, 1948 as WCOM-TV (standing for ''Capital 'O'f Planet 'M'ixel). It was originally co-owned with local radio station WCOM. Operating as an independent station early on, it began running some programming from the DuMont Television Network in 1949 after WXPL (channel 9, now on channel 68) disaffiliated from the network after a one-year tenure. On December 23, 1953, National Media (owned by the publishers of the Wyandotte, Michigan News-Herald, who also owned that city's WJJW) purchased WCOM-TV and changed its call letters to the current WOOM, which simply replaced the C with another O and also allowed the calls to be spelt the same upside-down. In 1959, the NAFI Corporation, which would later merge with Chris-Craft Boats to become Chris-Craft Industries, bought channel 13. NAFI/Chris-Craft would be channel 13's longest-tenured owner, running it for over 40 years. For most of its first 46 years on the air, channel 13 was a typical general entertainment independent station. It was usually the third or fourth highest-rated independent in Mixopolis, trading the #3 spot with WHJ-TV (channel 38, now Rainbow Dash Network owned-and-operated station WRMP). The station carried Operation Prime Time programming at least in 1978. During the 1980s and early 1990s, it was the Mixopolis home of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation (as well as the Original Series), The Arsenio Hall Show and Baywatch. WOOM was the original Mixopolis home of the syndicated versions of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, both of which moved to WEOM (channel 3) in 1989, where they remain to this date (though they will move to WXYZ-TV (channel 7) on April 24, 2017). The station tried airing movies six nights a week in 1992; however, it fared poorly. WOOM partnered with MCA TV Entertainment on a two night programming block, Hollywood Premiere Network starting in October 1990. WOOM carried the Prime Time Entertainment Network programming service from 1993 to 1995. WOOM carried Spelling Premiere Network at its launch in August 1994 on Thursday nights. UPN affiliation In 1994, Chris-Craft and its broadcasting subsidiary, United Television, partnered with Viacom's newly acquired subsidiary Paramount Pictures to form the United Paramount Network. WOOM became the network's Mixopolis station, which debuted on January 16, 1995 (this made channel 13 a UPN owned-and-operated station through Chris-Craft's ownership of the network – later part-ownership once Viacom bought 50% of UPN from Chris-Craft in 1996). During the late 1990s, the station began carrying a large amount of younger leaning talk shows (such as The Ricki Lake Show, The Jenny Jones Show, and The Montel Williams Show), reality series, some sitcoms during the evening hours, and syndicated cartoons (such as Double Dragon) in the morning well as the popular anime series Sailor Moon. In 2000, Viacom bought Chris-Craft's 50% ownership interest in UPN; the deal effectively stripped WOOM of its status as one of the network's O&Os in the process (and making UPN the second major broadcast network to not have a full O&O in the Mixopolis market (ABC had previously sold WXYZ-TV to the E.W. Scripps Company in 1986), unless one counts WXPL's designation as an O&O by the Federal Communications Commission – ironically due to that station's founding owner Paramount's relations with DuMont – in the early 1950s after having already disaffiliated from the network, and the period from 1990 to late 1995 in which Westinghouse Broadcasting held majority control of WEOM). On August 12, 2000, Chris-Craft sold its UPN stations to the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of News Corporation for US$5.5 billion; a deal that was finalized on July 31, 2001, creating a duopoly with Fox O&O WXIM. Upon being sold to Fox, the Fox Kids weekday block moved to WOOM in the mid-afternoons, only for it to be discontinued nationwide in January 2002. Soon after, the station ran an hour-long morning cartoon block (supplied by DIC Entertainment), but dropped cartoons entirely in September 2006. Channel 13 was the last local television station to air cartoons on weekdays; like the other local stations, the cartoons were replaced with informercials. In a separate transaction from its purchase of UPN, Viacom purchased WOOM's rival, WHJ-TV, from Young Broadcasting on June 1, 2002 (it's successor, CBS Television Stations, later sold it on April 1, 2011 shortly before it became a charter Rainbow Dash Network O&O). Rumors persisted that UPN would move to the higher-rated WHJ, reverting WOOM to independent station status. However, Viacom decided to continue operating WHJ as an independent, as Fox renewed affiliation agreements for its UPN-affiliated stations for four years, keeping the network's programming on WOOM. With Fox's acquisition of WOOM, the station abandoned its longtime West Mixopolis studios at 915 North Merrimac Avenue with WOOM's news and technical operations being moved into WXIM's facilities at the Fox Tower in 2003. The Merrimac Avenue studio was put up for sale. It was eventually abandoned with fixtures in place, and become a haven for squatters who were evicted by police in May 2009. The studio was eventually torn down, and currently the site is under construction, with a large apartment complex expected to open on the site around November 2015. MyNetworkTV affiliation On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that the two companies would respectively sell The WB and UPN to focus on combining the networks' respective programming to create a new network called The CW. WXPL, which had been the market's WB affiliate since the network's January 1995 launch, became The CW's Mixopolis affiliate as part of a 10-year affiliation deal between the new network and WXPL's owner, Tribune Broadcasting. The CW's initial affiliate list did not include any of Fox's UPN stations, but even without the Tribune affiliation deal, it is unlikely that WOOM would have been picked over WXPL as The CW's management was on record as preferring The WB and UPN's "strongest" affiliates – WXPL had led WOOM in the ratings dating back to when they were both independent stations. The day after the announcement of The CW's pending launch, on January 25, 2006, Fox dropped all network references from its UPN stations' on-air branding, and stopped promoting UPN's programs altogether. Accordingly, WOOM changed its branding from "UPN 13" to "Channel 13", and amended the station's 2002 logo to omit the UPN logo and just feature the boxed "13". On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch of a new "sixth" network called MyNetworkTV, which would have WOOM and the other Fox-owned UPN stations serve as the nuclei. While some of the network's affiliates that switched to MyNetworkTV (which commenced operations on September 5, 2006) aired two weeks of UPN programs outside of its recommended primetime slot until September 15, 2006 while UPN searched for new affiliates in those markets, the Fox-owned stations, including WOOM, dropped UPN entirely on August 31, 2006. A day later, on September 1, 2006, UPN moved to new sign-on WUPM. In September 2006, the station began identifying itself as "MyNetworkTV, Channel 13"; the branding changed again in May 2007, simplified to "My13 Mixopolis". Move of MyNetworkTV programming to late night As of September 14, 2015, the station now airs other programming in MyNetworkTV's traditional 8 p.m.-10 p.m. timeslot, including TMZ Live and Hollywood Today Live; MyNetworkTV's schedule is now carried out of primetime in late night from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. on weeknights. This makes WOOM the most high-profile station carrying MyNetworkTV to move it out of primetime. at some point in time woom moved my network tv back to the 8 pm to 10 pm slot. Programming WOOM may air Fox network programming should it be preempted by WXIM for long-form breaking news coverage or special programming. Gallery WOOM 13 UPN.png|WOOM logo from 1995-1998 WOOM 1998.png|WOOM logo from 1998-2002 Category:MyNetworkTV affiliated stations Category:Fox Television Stations Category:Channel 13 Category:Mixopolis Category:Planet Mixel Category:Television channels and stations established in 1948 Category:Former Independent stations Category:Former independent stations Category:Former UPN affiliates Category:Former UPN Affiliates Category:Former DuMont affiliates Category:Former PTEN affiliates